Cangrejeras de Santurce Dominoes

Every choice traced back to the object's dual life: a keepsake for Las Cangrejeras and a functional tool for actual play, allowing the game to take place over any surface. The box's structure was the central design problem. Rather than treating the lid and base as passive containers, they were engineered to detach and reconfigure into four playing trays — one per player. The geometry had to satisfy two states simultaneously: unified and elegant when assembled, stable and practical when apart. 3Dprinting made this precision achievable at small scale. It also allowed the team's visual identity — colors, graphic elements, typography — to be integrated directly into the surfaces, eliminating the gap between structure and branding that conventional manufacturing might have forced. The choice of dominoes as the object was itself a design decision. Puerto Rican sports culture congregates around them. This piece acknowledges that fandom is not passive consumption — it is conversation, debate, memory, and community. The traditional metal spinners at the core of each tile were replaced with 3D dots, allowing shuffling on any surface. The result had to feel like it belonged to the team, to the game, and to the culture — all at once.

From the original award submission.